During the French Revolution, in 1793, the revolutionaries held a “Festival of Reason” in the Cathedral of Notre Dame, and a decree was passed that henceforth Notre Dame would be called “The Temple of Reason.” The belief behind this was that man was capable of governing himself by reason alone: that belief in God and adherence to the teachings of the Catholic Church was not only not necessary, but unreasonable. One year later, it was apparent how unreasonable “reason” that ex